Special Education Plan Changing In Farmington

FARMINGTON — A task force has recommended that school officials decentralize the way education plans are developed for special education students.

A report, completed by a task force made up of teachers, principals, school administrators and parents, urges school officials to give those who work most closely with special education students a greater role in determining their needs and developing programs for them.

The study was prompted by the complaints of several parents who told the board of education earlier this year that their children were not getting the help they felt was needed, and that no one in the school administration was taking their concerns into consideration.

Gerald Feldman, the director of special services for the school district and task force member, said one of the goals of decentralizing decision-making is to give parents more of a role in planning their children's education.

Some parents of special education students meet only once or twice a year with school officials to discuss their child's academic progress and future. The meetings, Feldman said, often consist of a parade of teachers and administrators who overwhelm the parents with information they do not have time to digest.

``We're trying to establish a process to make it easier for them,'' Feldman said.

Assistant Superintendent Diane Ullman, who served on the task force, said the first step toward decentralizing the planning process is giving teachers who work with special education students additional training.

With a better-educated staff, Ullman said, the educational planning process for special education students can be transferred to the individual schools. Presently the planning is overseen by administrators in the central office.

To make localized planning work, Ullman said, staff members would have to become more responsive to parents' concerns and treat them as partners in the education of their children.

Ullman said meetings with parents would be more frequent and used as an opportunity for the parents and staff to work together, rather than as an occasion to present parents with decisions that have been made for them.